At the royal college of Physicians
and surgeons of Glasgow
and surgeons of Glasgow
Gender inequality permeates the history of medicine and the history of the College. It wasn’t until the 1880s that women were allowed to sit examinations in medicine and surgery. This was known as the triple qualification, and the first women to qualify in Glasgow were Alice Ker and Emma Littlewood in 1886, years before the first medical degree awarded to a woman at the University of Glasgow. Change was slow, and even qualified women weren’t included in the College community for many years.
It was 1912 before the first fellowship was awarded to a woman, surgeon Jamini Sen. Originally from Bengal, she graduated from the Calcutta Medical College in 1894 with distinction. She then worked in Nepal and attended the royal family.
She was an advocate for better working conditions for female doctors in India and improving access to care for female patients – many of the hospitals she worked at saw a rise in female patients. She decided to travel to Europe and train in Glasgow to keep up to date with advancing practices:
“I began to feel that my knowledge was getting timeworn while science has been progressing continuously. I haven’t been able to keep up with it and am hence lagging behind. I have a lot of responsibilities towards my sisters in my country. The dearth of women doctors in our country is a very serious issue. We need able doctors to tackle and cure female ailments… what I learnt as a student… has progressed over time… if I wish to serve my sisters in this country then I must learn the modern procedures. And for this reason it is necessary that I should visit the hospitals in England to learn and improve my skills as a doctor.”